Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Aug 15;10(8):1645.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms10081645.

Vaginal Leptothrix: An Innocent Bystander?

Pedro Vieira-Baptista  1   2 , Joana Lima-Silva  1   2 , Mario Preti  3 , Carlos Sousa  4 , Fernanda Caiano  1 , Colleen K Stockdale  5 , Jacob Bornstein  6
Affiliations

Vaginal Leptothrix: An Innocent Bystander?

Pedro Vieira-Baptista et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

Leptothrix are long bacteria of rare occurrence; although these bacteria have been implicated in causing vaginal symptoms identical to candidiasis, studies on prevalence and effect on overall vaginal health are lacking. In this study, we evaluated data of women referred to a private clinic for treating vulvovaginal symptoms (n = 1847) and reassessed data of our previous and ongoing studies (n = 1773). The overall rate of leptothrix was 2.8% (102/3620), and the mean age of affected women was 38.8 ± 10.65 years (range 18-76). The majority of the women with leptothrix had normal vaginal flora (63.7% [65/102]). Leptothrix was associated with a higher risk of candidiasis (relative risk (RR) 1.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1600-3.1013; p = 0.010) and a lower risk of bacterial vaginosis (RR 0.55, 95% CI, 0.3221-0.9398; p = 0.029) and cytolytic vaginosis (RR 0.11, 95% CI, 0.0294-0.4643; p = 0.002). No cases of trichomoniasis were observed. Human immunodeficiency virus infection increased the risk of leptothrix (RR 3.0, 95% CI, 1.6335-5.7245; p = 0.000). Among the women evaluated for vulvovaginal symptoms, 2.4% (45/1847) had leptothrix, and in 26.7% (12/45), leptothrix was considered the causative entity. This study suggests that leptothrix occurrence is rare; it remains unresolved if it can be a cause of vulvar symptoms.

Keywords: candidiasis; dysbiosis; lactobacillosis; leptothrix; vaginal flora; wet mount microscopy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Leptothrix and normal background flora (×400).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Age distribution of women with leptothrix.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Vaginal pH distribution in women with leptothrix.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Horowitz B.J., Mårdh P.A., Nagy E., Rank E.L. Vaginal lactobacillosis. Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 1994;170:857–861. doi: 10.1016/S0002-9378(94)70298-5. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Feo L.G., Dellette B.R. Leptotrichia (Leptothrix) vaginalis. Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 1952;64:382–386. doi: 10.1016/0002-9378(52)90312-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Vieira-Baptista P., Grincevičienė Š., Oliveira C., Fonseca-Moutinho J., Cherey F., Stockdale C.K. The International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease Vaginal Wet Mount Microscopy Guidelines: How to Perform, Applications, and Interpretation. J. Low. Genit. Tract Dis. 2021;25:172–180. doi: 10.1097/LGT.0000000000000595. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fitzhugh V.A., Heller D.S. Significance of a diagnosis of microorganisms on pap smear. J. Low. Genit. Tract Dis. 2008;12:40–51. doi: 10.1097/lgt.0b013e31813e07ff. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Seo S.S., Arokiyaraj S., Kim M.K., Oh H.Y., Kwon M., Kong J.S., Shin M.K., Yu Y.L., Lee J.K. High Prevalence of Leptotrichia amnionii, Atopobium vaginae, Sneathia sanguinegens, and Factor 1 Microbes and Association of Spontaneous Abortion among Korean Women. Biomed. Res. Int. 2017;2017:5435089. doi: 10.1155/2017/5435089. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources